My speech

What suffocate’s thousands of creatures?

What blocks drains and contaminates the ocean and fields?

Is it plastic? Or is it because of people?

Here is the answer and it might shock you...

Both, people and plastic.

I’m here to talk to you about why people NEED to stop littering all over the land and ocean.

One reason is because it kills 100 million creatures every year and threatens extinction to some animals. It can harm people that eat creatures that ate plastic. It all starts off when somebody drops a plastic bag or any other rubbish on the land. It could’ve saved thousands of creatures if only that person put the rubbish in the bin instead.

                 How ancient are plastic bags?

The material plastic has already been here for more than a century. Sten Gustaf, used plastic and introduced plastic bags to the world. He made it for a purpose, to make carrying things around easier and making the bag able to last long enough for people to keep using it. The only problem was, people didn’t reuse it, he also did not notice that it could murder 100 million creatures. When more people started using it, they became careless, drop them all around the land. It has murdered millions of creatures.

                      Impact on turtles.

An example are turtles, they see plastic bags as jellyfish. They eat the plastic bag and guess what happens? They die, not quickly, but slow and painfully. That, can make turtles go extinct, they already are endangered yet, people still use plastic bags. If people keep using plastic, one day turtles will be “dead as a dodo”. One day we might have to change it into “dead as a turtle”.

                          Impact on birds.

Birds also think it’s food. So they do just about anything to eat the plastic and meet the grim reaper. People have found birds with their stomach all filled up with plastic caps, bags, straws, cans and even pieces of metal. Sometimes the bird survives and feeds it’s chicks, just to find it sprawled on the sand or rock, motionless and lifeless.

                     Plastic in the ocean.

Plastics have also sailed all over the ocean. Literally. Plastic has been in in the Mariana trench, deepest part of the ocean. Even the dumbo octopus, angler fish, giant isopod/amphipod, weird “ghost snailfish” have eaten plastic. This proves that plastic has literally been all over the ocean. It’s already bad enough isn’t it? Yet, we still use plastic. Everyday, approximately 8 million plastics find their way to the ocean. It also takes plastic about 500-1000 years to decay. So if all plastic takes 1000 years to decay and there are 8 mill plastic in the ocean, it might take… (Help where’s the calculator?) 800 million years.  People from 3018 can find the plastic that we used… Expect there might not be 3018....

                        Burning plastic.

People also smolder plastic, which harms the air. It releases carbon dioxide, sometimes methane and other toxins. If we continue like this, we’re going to regret it because we’re going to suffocate slowly. Incinerating plastic also causes global warming. The chemicals can burn the ice and make the Earth flood. That, is how humans can be extinct along with trillions of other creatures. I’m pretty sure the guy in River Styx will say: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”.

Now I’m going to ask you for your opinion, are you going to continue using plastic and destroy the environment, or are you going to stop using plastic and ask others to stop too? I hope you stop… Or you will regret it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This term we were learning about descriptive writing. Here is my very own speech. I created it to try stop people using plastic and littering. The only problem is, I don't have the guts to share it in front of people.

Even tho I didn't get to the semi-finals, I don't really care.

Are you persuaded by the speech?